Costa hot chocolate death due to allergy process failures

East London Coroner’s Court heard that on the day of her death neither Hannah nor her mother were carrying an EpiPen that had been prescribed.

They had visited the Costa Coffee branch in Station Parade, Barking, owned and operated by a franchisee, to buy two soya hot chocolates before Hannah attended the dentist, which she had an appointment to visit before going to school.

After getting to the dentist, Hannah “abruptly got up and went to the toilet and shouted ‘that was not soya milk’”, her mother told the inquest.

The court heard standing up while having an allergic reaction could be detrimental and there would have been a need to lie the child down.

Ms Duyile instead rushed Hannah to a nearby chemist as her “lips and mouth were very swollen and she was itchy”.

Hannah collapsed in the chemist and the pharmacist gave her an paediatric dose of an EpiPen injection in her leg.

The inquest also heard there was a general shortage of EpiPens and that Zeenat Panirwala, a customer in the chemist who tried to resuscitate Hannah, also had allergies and had an EpiPen.

Pharmacist Santokh Kahlon said he would “definitely” have used the extra EpiPen if he had known there was one.

He told staff to look around to see if there were any EpiPens but none could be found.

Attempts were made to resuscitate her and an ambulance was called, but she was declared dead by 13:00 GMT.